The college campus is a tight community. The six degrees of separation that supposedly exists among society is shortened to two degrees among college students. Everyone knows someone who's a connection to everyone else. News travels quick and bad news travels even quicker.

So the question to be asked is: What is the level of privacy accorded to college students? A story that would barely make a ripple in a city paper could make a social pariah out of someone in the college setting. Though it is not the journalist's job to protect the subject of a story, practicing responsibility is a good idea.